July
8, 2006 Meeting
Preparation
An
e-mail was
sent to each member who has provided a contact e-mail address.
Susan Chu and
Laura Ellersieck phoned
other members on the
phone contact list.
Attendees
11
members
Meeting
Agenda
Items:
- Community
Development and Utility Corridors
A presentation about proposed development underneath the Edison lines
in Pasadena.
Diane Smith and George Minter of
Greer/Dailey/Minter, the public relations firm representing the
developer of self storage facilities will present and discuss plans
that will be submitted to the city soon.
- Discussion
of results of Ice Rink CUP
Hearing on July 5
- Discussion of upcoming Design
Commission
review of
Ice Rink Project
- Dog Park and dog bronchitis outbreak
- anything
else attendees wish to discuss
The meeting began about 11:25
- Community Development and Utility Corridors
Diane
Smith and George Minter introduced themselves. They are from the
public relations firm Greer/Dailey/Minter,
which represents the self-storage developer (Pacific Storage Partners)
that has now submitted plans to the city for areas of Edison land north
of Sierra Madre Blvd and south of Colorado Blvd. They discussed the
plans for public storage and also shared their knowledge of other
things going on in the Edison corridor through the city.
- Edison
has found
that self-storage is an industry which can fit within
the under-power-line restrictions and make significantly more money
then nurseries. The claim is that self-storage has a low
traffic
impact (less then residential, retail, or commercial), high security,
and makes minimal noise.
- One
self-storage facility would be located north of Sierra Madre Blvd, on
part of the land where Perssons Nursery has been. As with
Perssons, the office and storage units would be located well back from
the street - beyond the Edison towers. Landscaping would be put
along the street frontage.
- An area
of more self-storage units would be located further north, to the north
of a street named Bradley. Bradley comes off of New York Drive
and serves the industrial park. There would not be another office
in this location - the office off Sierra Madre Blvd would control this
area too.
- In
between those areas of self-storage under the lines there is an
existing parking lot south of Bradley which is used by Avery and the
Earthlink buildings. That parking lot would remain in
place. There is an empty parcel owned by Avery next to the Avery
building which is being looked at for development by YMCA.
(Think I heard some additional Edison land in that area would become
parking).
- The area
south of Sierra Madre Blvd and north of Orange Grove has been
designated by Edison for a commercial nursery. Perssons has
chosen not to take the offer of a long term lease and assistance with
moving into that location. Reportedly three other commercial
nurseries have expressed serious interest and are now evaluating
it. The idea is that the nursery office/store would be located
off of Sierra Madre Blvd. The smaller area between Paloma and
Orange Grove would probably be just for plant growing/storage, probably
not open to the public.
- The
self-storage developer still holds development rights with Edison for
the area adjacent to us, south of Viña Vieja Park and north of
the PCC parking lot. The intent is that they will turn those over
to the city for use in accessing the ice rink and possibly expanding
PCC parking.
- More
self-storage would be developed south of Colorado Blvd. The
southwest corner of Colorado Blvd and Kinneloa (former extra parking
for Fedco) would be the location for the office. The three
nurseries in the area to the east of Kinneloa south to Del Mar and just
beyond would be replaced with storage units.
- To the
south of that, behind Willard Elementary, two AYSO size soccer fields
would be constructed. This would then be turned over to the city
for the park system. The idea is that Willard would be able to
use these fields during school hours and they'd be available for public
use at other times. But these details, including parking, would
be up to the city to work out with the school district.
- In 2002
the
City of Pasadena changed the commercial zoning code to eliminate the
abilty to build self-storage facilities by right. They did not
ban the
building of self-storage, but it now has to be approved on a case by
case basis. The self-storage developer is asking the city to
rezone
the land as a Planned Development and asking for approval for their
self-storage plans for it. With a planned
development, the city and developer have the ability to negotiate what
is to be done relatively free of the standard zoning rules (the dense
housing development north of PHS was a planned development). The
City Council will have to make the decision of what to allow.
- Question
was asked whether Edison might raise the "too low" lines which caused a
chunk to be cut out of Viña Vieja Park. Answer was that
Edison very rarely raises lines. Calculation of what is allowed
under lines depends on how thick the wires are, how they are supported
on the towers, how much current is running through them. The more
current on the lines, the hotter they get, and the more they sag.
How close development can be to towers depends in part on
whether lines change angle at the tower - if they do then more
clearance is required.
- PCC
actually owns the land for some distance from their driveway on
Foothill before the parking access crosses onto Edison land. This
gives them additional leverage on the city's ice rink plans.
- There
was quite a bit of confused discussion about who is supposed to be
doing what with the Edison land in the "safety zone" between Avocado
Ave and the new white Edison fence on the edge of the park. Also
questions about why Edison doesn't clean up their mess, such as their
dug up fence posts that are lying in piles. George Minter
promised to take a look at our local eyesore and try to find out for us
who is supposed to be in control and taking care of each piece of land.
- Unrelated
to the Edison land or self-storage plans, it was mentioned that there
is a piece of land on the north side of Sierra Madre Blvd just east of
Washington Blvd (and PHS) that is being looked at for development of an
AYSO soccer field.
- Discussion of results of Ice Rink CUP
Hearing on July 5
- The
hearing was attended by Laura Ellersieck, Kathy Vacio, Gloria Vacio,
and Susan Chu. Kathy Vacio spoke for us. Tim Price attended
and spoke for Daisy Villa, our neighbors across the wash. Another
Daisy Villa resident also attended.
- The CUP
was approved, with conditions including:
- Hours
of operation limited to 6 am to midnight, 7 days a week
- Tim
Price requested that it close at 10 pm. This request was
denied. The hearing officer said that if there turned out to be
unresolvable problems in the late hours, residents could request a
change in the permitted hours.
- Need a
Master Sign Plan for all signage on
the site.
- Because
the site has no street frontage, it is not automatically (by right)
allowed any signage. A Master Sign Plan has to provide details of
every sign and go through an approval process.
- Cannot
get grading or building permits until agreements with Edison and PCC
for access
are completed.
- Construction
traffic is not to go through our neighborhood.
- Traffic
signal at the PCC driveway on Foothill is to be completed before the
rinks open for business.
- They
have to keep a working pedestrian path from our neighborhood to the
park throughout construction. The can (and have to) move what is
there, but they can't just block access.
- Night
lighting is to be limited to the site.
- Other
bits of information learned:
- The
building and the
parking access road along its east side could not fit within the
boundaries of the city land and still preserve the trees on the west
side. Therefore, in order to keep those trees (as the
environmental initial study said would be done), the building will be
at the eastern edge of the city property and the access road will have
to run on Edison land. This means the city will have to obtain a
lease from Edison for that purpose.
- The
area
of the building between the two rinks was described in December as
having
two stories, with offices and meeting rooms on the second story.
The plans have now changed so that there is just one story in that
area.
- City
staff
is intending to design and construct the signal and street improvements
at the driveway entrance on Foothill as part of the Capital Improvement
project that will cut Kinneloa through to Titley and cut Walnut through
from Sunnyslope to Kinneloa. There is intent to use one signal
controller for the driveway and Titley because they are so close
together (though still 150 feet apart). City staff did not
want to commit to having the signal in place by the time the ice rink
opens because the capital improvement project has not yet been designed
and the funding is not complete. The hearing officer told them he
thought there was enough time to get that done and put in a condition
requiring it be done before the ice rink opens.
- A
person
attending from the current ice rink operators said that adults, and
adult accompanied children, are welcome to come into the facility and
watch the skating anytime for free, except on the rare occasions of
special events when admission is charged. He also said they want
to be good neighbors.
- An
additional modification to the parking plans has been under
consideration. That would put a row of parking to the west of the
access road, facing the east side of the building. Because the
building entrance is in the middle of the east side of the building,
these spaces would be the most frequently used and the parking lot
would only be needed during busier times. From a practical usage
standpoint, this makes a lot of sense. In order to make such a
change, more space would need to be leased from Edison and the
Conditional Use Permit would need to be modified.
- The
developer (city) representative stated during a discussion of potential
screening of residential areas from the parking lot and access road
that they "plan to provide shrubbery screen on Avocado". There
was no followup questioning to verify he meant it.
It
was also stated that it would not be practical to put a wall on the
west side of the parking lot due to the slope of the land and that
putting in the foundation for a wall would damage the existing
trees. Landscape screening is doable.
- Discussion of upcoming Design Commission
review of
Ice Rink Project
- Design
review by the Design Commission is expected to occur on July 24 or
August 14.
- The
Design Commission just gets to make a recommendation on the
design.
The City Council will make the decision of approval and/or requiring
any changes in design.
- The
areas outside the building, parking and landscaping, and anything
glaring to our neighborhood, are the primary area of interest.
Facility
users
may care about the interior design.
- Dog Park and dog
bronchitis outbreak
- On Friday July 7 we received a report
from one
of our members that bronchitis seems to be going around among dogs who
go to the dog park. The symptom reported is coughing. Do
not take sick dogs to the park, take them to the vet and don't return
to the park until they are completely recovered. Vets prescribe
antibiotics.
- It is not the same thing as
Bordetella, and Bordetella vaccinations may or may not help
prevent it, but it is important to have those vaccinations anyway.
- Attempting to contact Pooch to try to get
a warning sign up at the park and also have them distribute a warning
through their mailing list. (Have since learned they won't put up a
sign at the park because "at the limit of what can be posted and
actually absorbed by people coming to the park", but have put
information on their
website.)
- other
things attendees wished to discuss
- Dog park
and dog caused problems in the park
- poop
is not getting picked up
- dog
walkers are coming with way too many dogs to watch
- some
people apparently just don't want to do it
- lots
of poop is getting left in the people areas of the park
- humane
society is supposed to be doing license checks and leash enforcement
but a regular visitor has never seen them or any other rule enforcers
there
- ordinary
folks are not going to ask potentially hostile people to pick up their
dog's poop
- Pooch
promised to keep it clean and orderly - where are they?
- The
newly built massive two story "mansion" on Estado is reportedly up for
sale for 1.25 million. "They'll never get anywhere near that
much." Questioning how it can be within legal size limitations
(floor area not including gargage must be < 30% of lot square
footage). How could it get the needed building permits?
Fountain in patch of remaining back yard is reportedly a nuisance
because of being used at night by noisy children while lit by a very
bright light. What are rules for outdoor lighting in
residential areas?
- Re-expression
of concern about manufactured house being put in on Estado. Will it fit
in with neighborhood? Particularly odd is entrance midway between
front and back of house facing the driveway. Some think that once
it is completed and landscaped it won't look so different from many
other houses in the area.
Next meeting is August 12,
same
time, same place.
Adjourned about 1:15 pm.